SB 65: Education; mandatory kindergarten for all children prior to entering into first grade; provide

Under current Georgia law, local school systems may offer full-day kindergarten but are not required to, and compulsory attendance rules only kick in once a child has been enrolled in public school before turning seven. This bill changes both pieces. It rewrites O.C.G.A. § 20-2-150 so that compulsory attendance rules apply to children enrolled before their sixth birthday instead of their seventh, and it rewrites O.C.G.A. § 20-2-151 so that every local school system must offer a full-day kindergarten program, defined as at least four and a half hours of instruction daily for a 180 day school year. The bill also declares it state policy that all children attend a full year of full-day kindergarten before enrolling in first grade. Importantly, the whole Act only takes effect once the General Assembly passes a specific budget line item funding it, so the changes would not apply automatically even if the bill becomes law.

• Requires every local school system in Georgia to offer a full-day kindergarten program, changing the current law that only allowed them to do so.
• Declares it the policy of the state that all children attend a full-day kindergarten program for one school year before enrolling in first grade.
• Lowers the compulsory school attendance trigger age from before a child's seventh birthday to before a child's sixth birthday for children already enrolled 20 or more school days.
• Makes the entire Act contingent on the General Assembly later passing a specific budget appropriation naming this Act, so it would not take effect without separate funding.
• Repeals any existing Georgia laws that conflict with these changes.

Families with young children entering Georgia's public school system, local school boards and districts that must now offer full-day kindergarten, kindergarten teachers and staff whose staffing needs may grow, and the State Board of Education, which sets the rules for compulsory attendance and program guidelines.

If funded, families could no longer skip kindergarten before first grade, and every district would have to offer a full-day program rather than a partial or optional one. Because the law only activates once the legislature funds it in a budget bill, the practical effect depends entirely on a future appropriation.

• Section 1 amends O.C.G.A. § 20-2-150 to move the compulsory attendance trigger from before age seven to before age six for children already enrolled 20 or more school days.
• Section 2 amends O.C.G.A. § 20-2-151 to change local school systems' authority to offer full-day kindergarten from optional ('may') to mandatory ('shall').
• Section 2 also adds a statement of state policy that all children must attend a full-day kindergarten program for one school year before enrolling in first grade.
• Section 3 makes the entire Act's effectiveness contingent on a specific line-item appropriation naming this Act in a General Appropriations Act.
• Section 4 repeals any conflicting laws.

1. 2026-01-12Senate Recommitted (Senate)
2. 2025-03-04Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
3. 2025-03-03Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (Senate)
4. 2025-02-03Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
5. 2025-01-30Senate Hopper (Senate)

• Derek Mallow (D, SD-2)Primary sponsor
• Billy Hickman (R, SD-4)
• Jason Esteves (D, SD-35)
• Freddie Powell Sims (D, SD-12)
• Carden Summers (R, SD-13)

• kindergarten
• public schools
• compulsory attendance
• education funding
• school enrollment age